Jake Stattel

The Sir David Wilson Lecture in Medieval Studies 2025 The Sir David Wilson Lecture, the first event in the 2025-26 UCL Institute of Archaeology/British Museum Medieval Seminar Series, will be given by Rory Naismith (University of Cambridge) on 8 October.

THIS WEEK: Please join us and @uclioabmmedieval.bsky.social for the Sir David Wilson lecture, with @rorynaismith.bsky.social on 'From Mesoamerica to Early Medieval England: Money, Materiality and Society'. Weds 8 Oct, 6.15pm, Archaeology Lecture Theatre G6. All welcome! www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies is pleased to present its THIRD volume. This volume contains two articles and a note, and is accompanied by five book reviews. We would like to thank all of our authors for contributing to this volume.

t.co/se9xXWQn1z

The biggest misunderstanding people make about the humanities is that they’re unscientific. The fact is that we have a good understanding of how an early medieval language sounded when spoken, and that’s because of philologists following what can only be described as scientific methods.

Autumn 2025 schedule for the Institute of Historical Research's Earlier Middle Ages seminar. Full information available at https://www.history.ac.uk/news-events/seminars/earlier-middle-ages

📣 The Earlier Middle Ages seminar @ihr.bsky.social is now on Bluesky! Here's our autumn term schedule. First up is @rorynaismith.bsky.social on 8 October, giving the annual David Wilson Lecture (with @uclarchaeology.bsky.social). All welcome! Please sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Knowledge Commons upload 'A context for the Birka grave Bj581? Women and military leadership in the tenth century' (2024 but previously published in German) #medievalsky #archaeology #history #gender
works.hcommons.org/records/reqx...

A finds photograph of a small, broken copper-alloy fitting from the site of the Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire. This is DB number 130: it's part of a carved, slightly curved ferrule, with projecting dags on one side forming shapes reminiscent of animal masks.

A finds drawing of DB number 804 from the Great Army site at Torksey, lincolnshire. This is another broken ferrule, with a geometric design executed on heavily-gilded copper-alloy.

I think we'll spend the next few weeks looking at weapons for our Viking camps #FindsFriday posts: for all our talk of the 'Great Army', there are surprisingly few weapons from the sites.

We'll start with these two pieces - Torksey finds DB 130 and 804. Both are broken ferrules from sword grips. /1

Death Rituals Cambridge Core - Global History - Death Rituals

A fabulous looking new book from Tonicha Upham exploring all the Arabic and Persian evidence on Rus burials and sacrifices, complete with translations! #medievalsky #vikings

www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Do go and check out Judith’s new book! Then listen to our chat with her…

vikingology.substack.com/p/the-saga-o...

Offa An authoritative biography of Offa of Mercia, revealing his importance as the king who stood at the turning point of Anglo-Saxon history Offa ruled the Merci...

Coming next spring ... yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Congratulations to Dr Ben Guy, who has been awarded an AHRC standard grant to fund a major collaborative project on the early Welsh charters and their boundaries!

www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

Reclaiming the Medieval Saami Past Explore Saami history and its representation in medieval sources, challenging the myth of a purely White Middle Ages.

From traders to magicians and allies, the Saami appear across medieval Nordic sagas.

Solveig Marie Wang explores how these stories reveal an Indigenous presence at the centre of the Middle Ages — and why remembering it matters today.

You might assume “Anglo-Saxons” is a simple phrase with a simple meaning, but it’s meant various things during the past centuries. This is a brilliant open-access summary of those evolutions by Prof Rory Naismith @rorynaismith.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I'm excited to announce that I'll be sharing some findings of my PhD research at an online talk for UHI's Institute for Northern Studies on November 27, titled 'Families, Networks and Informants: The Making of Orkneyinga saga'. Click the link below to register!

Making Domesday: Intelligent Power in Conquered England Abstract. Making Domesday presents a fresh interpretation of William the Conqueror’s survey of England, made possible by a major collaborative study of Exo

"It is hard to resist the conclusion that the making of Domesday was an act of colonial domination". From the astonishing Making Domesday book, by Baxter Crick & Lewis. doi.org/10.1093/oso/...

A review of Little Kingdoms by Alex Harvey, written by Hana Videen: ‘Dispels the myth that Early Medieval Britain was a heptarchy, the home of a people easily categorised by ethnicity or nationality. Instead, Harvey breathes life into a sweeping miscellany of little kingdoms. Some familiar and prominent in our early medieval histories, others mysterious and elusive.’

Thank you to @hanavideen.bsky.social of ‘The Deor Hord’ and @oewordhord.bsky.social fame for reviewing my next book, LITTLE KINGDOMS (releasing 30/11/25)

‘Dispels the myth of [easy] ethnicity or nationality [terms]. Instead, Harvey breathes life into a sweeping miscellany of little kingdoms.‘

Vikings were captivated by silver – our new analysis of their precious loot reveals how far they travelled to get it New analysis of silver items in the Bedale hoard reveals Scandinavians travelled to the east to trade much earlier than previously thought.

A piece in The Conversation, contextualising our results from the Bedale hoard

theconversation.com/vikings-were...

@unioxarchaeology.bsky.social @yorkmuseumstrust.bsky.social @bgs.ac.uk

Periodisation, Terminal Narratives, and the Beginning of the Middle Ages in Lowland Britain This brief contribution seeks to remind readers that familiar periodisation schemes are deeply entrenched not so much because they have withstood the test of time but because scholars come of age a...

For those interested in thinking about rethinking periodization, especially the line between the Roman and early medieval periods in British history and archaeology; www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

One more day to submit a proposal to our series of talks at @imc-leeds.bsky.social! #IMC2026 #Medievalists #Medievalsky #EarlyMedieval #VikingStudies

A finds photograph showing DB2353 from the Viking Great Army camp at Toeksey, Lincolnshire. The find is a small piece of broken silver, roughly 15mm long, with a roughly cross-shaped outline.

We've been looking at little amulets (and could-be amulets) for our last few Viking Camps #FindsFridays, so I thought I'd take a risk and continue the theme today.

Why's it taking a risk? Well, even though it's fascinating, today's find isn't very much to look at! This tiny fragment is TDB2353. /1

The medieval manuscript containing the Dane saga of Breda.

Alongside my article on the 'Dane saga' of Breda in MLC, I wrote a little companion piece for the Royal Historical Society (@royalhistsoc.org) blog, introducing this capricious, clumsy, and charming work of premodern imagination.

#medievalsky

blog.royalhistsoc.org/2025/08/12/d...

Viking silver hoard reveals far-reaching trade links between England New research into a remarkable Viking-Age silver hoard discovered in North Yorkshire, led by Dr Jane Kershaw,  Associate Professor of Viking Age Archaeology, School of Archaeology, has shed light on

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-08...

Pleased that this is now out! See the Bedale hoard as part of the Viking North exhibition at York Museum.

@yorkmuseumstrust.bsky.social @unioxarchaeology.bsky.social

A find from the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire - a small anchor-shaped piece of flat lead, TDB 1628, with a broken perforation at the top.

After last week's balance-cum-Thor's-hammer find, I thought we could look at a similar artefact for today's Viking camps #FindsFriday

This anchor-shaped piece of lead is Torksey DB1628. It's currently thought to be an amulet, but has previously been seen as a possible Mjõlnir pendant. /1

The Dane saga of Breda: A Late Medieval Account of Viking Endeavour and Vernacular Devotion: The Medieval Low Countries: Vol 11 Found in the municipal archives of Breda (present-day North Brabant, Netherlands) is a conspicuous but ill-studied late fifteenth or early sixteenth-century codex, whose contents are deemed to have been composed within the late medieval town. Although characterised as a local cross legend, the Middle Dutch work is customarily referred to by its modern moniker of Denensage (i.e. Dane saga) due to the presence and pursuits of ‘viking’ mariners over the course of its verse narrative. By imparting how a group of Danes found their way to Breda and established a stronghold there – refashioning a prominent local tree into a cross in the process – the work occupies a distinct confluence of historiographical, devotional, and literary authorship. Situating the Dane saga in its sociocultural context, this article explores the wide-ranging narrative influences underpinning it, whilst determining its potential authorship and intended audience(s). Lastly, as well as furnishing a new edition of the manuscript, it offers the first English translation of this important, idiosyncratic text.

Beyond excited that my study of the medieval 'Dane saga' of Breda is finally out (OA 🔓) alongside a first English translation! This anachronistic oddity of devotional/literary storytelling posits how a group of 'vikings' arrived and troubled the city for years.

www.brepolsonline.net/doi/epdf/10....

All the Single Ladies? Detector finds, dispersed data and suboptimal sources in the study of Viking Age metalwork In a growing number of countries, the activities of hobby detector users are lauded as a vital source of information about the past. The present paper argues that this statement is not unequivocal. An...

ICYMI: Deckers, P. 2025 All the single ladies? Detector finds, dispersed data and suboptimal sources in the study of Viking Age metalwork, Internet Archaeology 68. doi.org/10.11141/ia....

The Herefordshire Viking Hoard - Current Archaeology In 2019, pieces of a stolen Viking hoard were recovered; since then, analysis of these artefacts has shed new light on Anglo-Saxon England.

More on the Herefordshire Hoard over on @currentarchaeology.bsky.social - dig that incredible rock crystal ball pendant, of similar vintage as one from the Galloway Hoard deposited not long after archaeology.co.uk/articles/fea...

Today I start my research trip sailing down the River Seine from Paris to Honfleur (via a few stops) in a reconstruction of the Klåstad cargo ship built in 998. It’s the penultimate stage in the ship’s journey from Rome to London throughout the summer. I’ll post updates as we go #Saga25 #MedievalSky

Were the Normans Vikings? No. Well, fine, I suppose given I have compelled others to elaborate in similar situations I should put a bit more here. The Bayeux Tapestry is coming to the UK from Autumn next year, and with the …

Very happy to read this new post by @ralphtorta.bsky.social which answers a question I often see online. Were the Normans actually Vikings? #medievalsky #vikings #normans

salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/07/31/w...

Illustrations of a tattoo depicting a deer being attacked by a griffin, showing it: A) in its current state; B) recreated to fill in missing elements and account for skin desiccation; and C) an idealised rendering (credit: D. Riday).

NEW How did ancient tattooers learn their craft?

High-res, near infrared photography and collaboration with modern tattooers reveals the complex process behind tattoos on Siberia's 'ice mummies'.

#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵

Warning: this thread contains images of human remains

Girton medievalist Professor Anthony Bale elected as Fellow of the British Academy

🎉 We’re thrilled to share that Girton Fellow Professor Anthony Bale has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy, in honour of his outstanding contributions to scholarship.

Read more ➡️ https://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/news/girton-medievalist-professor-anthony-bale-elected-fellow-british-academy

I really enjoyed this chat, in which we tried to ask what exactly was early medieval about early medieval international relations. #medievalsky #internationalrelations